The C9 League (simplified Chinese: 九校联盟; traditional Chinese: 九校聯盟; pinyin: Jiǔxiào Liánméng) is an alliance of nine most prestigious Chinese universities, which were selected by the Chinese government in 1998.
On May 4, 1998, Project 985 was initiated by the Chinese government in order to advance the higher education system. In the first phase, nine universities were selected and allocated funding for the first period of three years, two in Beijing (Peking University and Tsinghua University), two in Shanghai (Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University), one in Western China (Xi'an Jiao Tong University), one in Northeast China (Harbin Institute of Technology) and the other three in the Yangtze River Delta encompassing Shanghai in East China. On October 10, 2009, these nine universities made up the C9 League.[1] They had made a much anticipated decision to formalize an elite group that is pitched as China's Ivy League.[2] These top universities collectively account for 3% of the country's researchers but receive 10% of national research expenditures, and produce the lion's share of output, generating 20% of the country's journal articles and 30% of total citations.[3]
The aim of the C9 is to communicate with each other in order to foster better students, sharing their resources, including campus, teachers, and so on.[4][5] More importantly, they have committed themselves to world-class excellence.[6][5] The establishment of the C9 League has been welcomed by Chinese public opinion. Its central idea of building world-class universities has been well supported by both government and society. However, although there are few criticisms of C9, there are still some concerns, such as how to share the benefits of the C9 with other universities in China.[6]
- ^ Harbin Institute of Technology has a special history in China especially with the military system, and is the best university in Northeast China, thereby getting special consideration from the government.
- ^ Part of Jiao Tong University was moved from Shanghai to Xi'an in 1956 to promote the education in the remote western regions, thereby Jiao Tong University splitting into two independent ones. Xi'an Jiao Tong University becomes the best university in Western China.
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